How to Win A War Before It Even Begins
by I. H. Scribe
Summary: Voldemort comes back a few years early.


Fandoms: Harry Potter

Characters: Lord Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy

Prompt: Voldemort returns a few years early, and gets lucius to put a new law on the books about branding those of lesser blood as slaves and taking all they own, with plans to use it on the muggleborn after the war.

Prompt Made By: RuneWitchSakura

Disclaimer: I don't own the following series(es) or any character(s) that follow, and unless _I. H. Scribe_ is listed after _Prompt Made By_ chances are I don't own the idea for this story either.

* * *

Lucius Malfoy poured himself a glass of Ogden's finest and sat down in front of his study's desk. He and his wife Narcissa had just returned home from the annual Ministry ball, held to honor the achievements of the past year. Lucius' year had gone well, except for the loss of his elf. Dumbledore hadn't mentioned his accusations of Lucius slipping the Weasley chit his Master's old diary to anyone, or so it seemed, since there was no extra surveillance on himself – knowledge he gained from his old friend Yaxley in the DMLE.

Lucius was about to pour himself another glass when a wand was pressed to the back of his neck.

"My my, Lucius," came a voice Lucius recognized – one he had feared hearing again, "I spend a decade as a wraith – a spirit with barely any ability to move – with no help from any of my _loyal_ followers. I finally return, assuming my followers are all in prison or dead – why else wouldn't they seek their master out? – only to find almost all of them free, and you, sitting at your desk, drinking _firewhiskey_."

"I only sought to keep myself out of prison to pave the way for your return My Lord," Lucius said quickly. The wand pressed harder into his neck.

"And yet, you didn't seek me out," Voldemort said, "leaving your beloved master to rot in a forest."

"Had I known where you were, My Lord," Lucius started, but he stopped speaking when the wand pressed even harder into his neck.

"You would have merely sent someone to finish me off, Lucius," Voldemort hissed. "We both know you desire power above all else, and I was short on it then. But now – now my strength has returned to me, and we shall continue where we left off."

"Of course, My Lord. Should I alert the others?"

"No, not yet. I will not risk Dumbledore having another trick up his sleeve. We will move slowly this time, Lucius. Replace certain people in the Ministry with sympathizers, get new laws on the books, and when we're done with that, it will be almost too easy to topple the remainder of Dumbledore's crowd."

"And the boy, Potter?"

"He'll be dealt with soon enough."

* * *

Lucius had been fearful of his master's return. The Voldemort that had been defeated that night on Halloween had been a terrible man, quick to anger, quicker still to throw out a crucio or two. But the Voldemort that had returned was more like the man that his father had described – a relatively sane politician and tactician.

Lucius hadn't seen the reasoning behind the first three laws Lord Voldemort wanted passed through the Wizengamot, until he saw the fourth law. The first three had unobtrusively laid the groundwork for this law.

It was a work of genius – mixed in all the jargon and legalese was a law that would finally raise purebloods up to their rightful place – above all the other muck of the world. There was only one problem Lucius could see...

"Dumbledore and Bones are going to catch this," he told Lord Voldemort.

"I'm sure they will, which is why this clause is in it," Voldemort said, tracing over a few lines that gave the power of accepting claims for this law to a single person. "Offer it to the young Harry Potter. The moment the idiots there hear that it gives something to their precious Boy-Who-Lived, they will rush to be the ones to give it to him."

"But Potter, My Lord?"

"The boy will not let anyone use it before we take over. And once we do, I'll finally kill the boy and one of our own will take his place."

Any other objections flooded out of Lucius' mind at the thought of being the one to put the mudbloods and other filth in their proper place.

* * *

His master had been right, of course. Even with Dumbledore and Bones against it, once the Wizengamot heard of the position the Potter boy would be getting, the majority of them – even a few that usually voted with Dumbledore or Bones – voted for the law – named the Personnel and Property Acquisition Act – to pass.

Lucius had been elated. Even the letter from Gringotts saying he needed to make a visit to correct some irregularities that arrived later that week didn't dampen his mood.

* * *

Two days after the PPA Act passed, Harry Potter walked into Gringotts. With only two weeks to go until Hogwarts began, the Alley was filled with students and their parents, so it wasn't such a strange sight. No one even paid any attention to him as he didn't get into a line to go down to the vaults, but instead walked up to a solitary goblin in the corner.

"**Good day to you fellow warrior,**" Harry said in perfect Gobbledegook, causing the goblin's eyebrows to reach the top of his forehead. "**I require your aid with legal matters that may cause some trouble with the finances of certain wizards and witches.**"

"**I see. Follow me, Mr. Potter, and we will get your legal matters taken care of,**" the goblin said. The goblin lead him through three sets of double doors, and two silver single doors, before arriving at a golden door.

The goblin gestured him in and had him sit, before sitting down himself, "**Now, how can Gringotts be of service to you Mr. Potter?**"

"**Firstly, I apologize, but I am unused to speaking Gobbledegook for long periods of time. Would you mind terribly if we were to switch to English?**"

"Gobbledegook is not meant for Human throats," the goblin said, switching to English, "but your accent was nearly perfect."

"I learned from the best, "Harry said. The goblin snorted. "His name was Rolfkar." The goblin's back straightened and he bared his teeth. Rolfkar was the head of the main Gringotts branch's large library, and had forgotten more about Gobbledegook than most goblins learned in a lifetime.

"Only he won't remember it," Harry continued, "because it hasn't happened yet, and likely will not happen."

"Are you saying?"

"I am from the future," Harry confirmed. "Voldemort rose again for a second time, and the war decimated not only the wizard's population, but the goblin's population as well. Even when he was defeated, most of his minions stayed in control of the Ministry, and the war continued, until there was practically no one left."

"I see."

"I already dealt with Voldemort this summer – he won't be making another reappearance – but this," Harry said, handing over a copy of the PPA Act, "was based on a law Voldemort's followers passed in the first timeline. It was cleverly edited by Rolfkar, and we made a plan to save both our people."

The goblin read the Act from top to bottom with a furrowed brow, and finally turned to Harry and said, "I do not see how."

"I didn't at first either, until he showed me these," Harry said, pulling more pieces of parchment out of his pocket and handing them to the goblin. "This first one is the Purity of Blood Lineage Act. It lists the tiers of blood purity and which Families, at the time of the law, applied to which tier.

"See this here – Tier 1 is Merlin. No one else, just Merlin. Tier 2 is also exclusive, but to four Families – Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. Even if a family made it to Tier 3 – a minimum of 3000 years of existence – they would never be able to pass into Tier 2.

"Now see this part of the PPA Act? It refers to one owning those of '_lesser blood_' and even references the PBL Act. This, Rolfkar created, and was passed before the PPA Act ," Harry said, pointing to the next parchment. "It claims all slaves owned by someone must be marked with their family's personal symbol. Each family can create a symbol to be approved at a later date."

"Which is mentioned in the PPA Act," the goblin said, starting to catch on, "Where? Oh, yes, right here. It says '_Family Symbol Approval and Personnel and Property Claims will be sent to approval to the same person, to be voted on by a majority of the Wizengamot, to be held until that person's ultimate demise._' But who is the person the Wizengamot voted on?"

Harry grinned widely, "Me!"

"You? But how did you get them to agree?"

"One unfortunate consequence of the night my parents died was Voldemort leaving a piece of himself inside of my scar. When I came back from the future, I was stronger – much stronger – than that little piece. I absorbed the knowledge he knew, and then had Dobby – Lucius Malfoy's old house elf – to take me to Lucius' study.

"I glamoured myself to look like Voldemort, waited for dear old Lucius to arrive, and convinced him to start worming his way back into his master's good graces by passing a few laws, then told him to have the Wizengamot vote on me to be the approver mentioned by the PPA Act to get that act passed, and," here Harry snapped his fingers, "it was passed just like that."

"And I imagine you've already approved the Slytherin family mark? Voldemort always claimed he was heir to Slytherin."

"He was," Harry said. He handed over an old tapestry. "The Slytherin family tree. Salazar Slytherin's descendants eventually merged with the Peverell Family. The oldest line died out, the next line ended with Voldemort, and the only other remaining line ends with me. Now, is that enough to make me the head of the Slytherin family, rather than the heir?"

"It is," the goblin said. "If you'll wait just a moment. We'll get the Slytherin Family Ring." The ring was brought to Harry, who put it on. It resized to fit his finger. "I suppose that, if nothing else would, proves you truly were the heir of Slytherin."

Harry smiled, and then passed over more pieces of parchment. "Here is my request for approval of the Slytherin Family Mark – already approved, of course." Even the goblin recognized the symbol on the paperwork – Voldemort's Dark Mark.

"Of course."

"And now to the thing I spoke about earlier. My multiple claims to those branded with my family's mark. As it happens, also already approved. I was hoping Gringotts might help me collect them."

"I'm sure we'd be more than capable of that. A simple letter to those marked about coming to Gringotts to correct a few irregularities with their accounts should do the trick."

"Awesome. I wasn't sure how I was going to force to acquiesce instead of trying to repeal the law. But now, I practically am the Wizengamot. I own nearly two-thirds of the seats on it."

"If I might ask, Mr. Potter – er, excuse me – Lord Slytherin, if you would set about repealing some of the other laws."

"The ones that restrict goblins and other beings the Ministry has listed as creatures?" Harry asked. "Already planning to. Not to mention, getting rid of that gaudy statue in the Ministry Atrium."

"And when we have acquired your, er, personnel and property?"

"When you have all of them, contact me. I'll have some veritaserum with me then. Those that truly served the madman will be dealt with more harshly, but those forced into his service will merely be put to easy tasks – gardening, cooking, things like that."

"One last request, Lord Slytherin?" the goblin asked. "Warn me if I ever get on your bad side?"

"Ah, about that Griphook. You did betray me and mine in the first timeline while we were trying to destroy Voldemort. Not that it did you any good – you were killed by a Death Eater three months later. Nasty curse – entrail expelling – I never knew goblin entrails were such a shocking shade of blue before that."

Griphook gulped and eyed the door.

"But, considering how much help your being now, I figure that pretty much evens you out. **Have a good day and break many opponent's bones fellow warrior.**"

Harry walked out of Gringotts three hours after he entered it. Voldemort was dealt with, and his followers will shortly be collected by the goblins, and then Harry'd deal with them too. And the best part of it all – Griphook wouldn't see Harry as owing him a favor later down the line.

* * *

So to avoid spoiling that neat little plot twist any more than necessary, I left some of the prompt out up top. Here is the full prompt:

Characters: Harry Potter, Lord Voldemort, Lucius Malfoy

Prompt: Voldemort returns a few years early, and gets lucius to put a new law on the books about branding those of lesser blood as slaves and taking all they own, with plans to use it on the muggleborn after the war.  
Has it put in Harry's name since harry won't let anyone use it just yet and voldemort plans to kill him eventually.

Only, it isn't voldemort, but a timetraveling harry, that uses the law against the death eaters since founder's are the oldest families/highest pureblood.

* * *

As always, I am accepting prompts, however, I am not accepting prompts through reviews. If you wish to give me a prompt, please see the Accepting Prompts section of my profile for instructions. Thank you.

I. H. Scribe


End file.
